SUMMER J. HART

“A MAN IS AN EARTHWORM IN THIS RESPECT”

To cure a mostly-drowned man
string him boots to 

branch.

 Knot      two snakes, 
one

head.

The hare’s bladder fitted to your pipe?     

Introduce it to his backside.     Yes, this is where the saying comes from. 

Now,

 smoke the river 

out. 

“A MAN IS THE LONGEST MOON IN THIS RESPECT”

He is gone when the wasps wake in the rafters, when the swifts 

lay in the flue. 

He returns to find the animals fat. Trees decked in shed velvet.     

Oysters, fruiting through bark.  

She rolls enough pennies for one ticket on the Greyhound.  

Pockets full of promise. I promise.  

When she was younger,     she cataloged her years by winters.     

Moose tracks mapped the frozen river,      

frostfish solid underneath.  

The seasons it takes a man to drink himself snow-blind.

“A MAN IS THE RED GLOW OF A COMPASS IN THIS RESPECT” 

We put in at the neck 

 of the lake 

 which is also the mouth of a river. Tell me 

 the weather won’t turn on us 

 this time.          

  Tell me     which shadows 

to trust 

& which ones are:    
skunk oil, pitch-

       soot, boneblack. 

 Tell me the man     in the wheelhouse

 tightens the silver belly 

 of an eel 

   across his forehead. 

Summer J. Hart (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist from Maine, living in the Hudson Valley, New York. Her written and visual artworks are influenced by folklore, superstition, divination, and forgotten territories reclaimed by nature. She is the author of Boomhouse (The 3rd Thing Press, forthcoming 2023) & the micro chapbook, Augury of Ash (Post Ghost Press, 2020). Her poetry can be found in Waxwing, The Massachusetts Review, Northern New England Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her mixed-media installations have been featured in galleries and shows including SPRING/BREAK, NYC; Pen + Brush, NYC; Gitana Rosa Gallery at Paterson Art Factory, Paterson, NJ; and LeMieux Galleries, New Orleans, LA. She is a member of the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation.